WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT'S YER BOLETIN SIN PATRONES... SchNEWS
ZanON and ON and ON!
"The fights live on in Zanon, workers control lives on. The
factory is the peoples' factory, Zanon will not be defeated." -
Protesters' Song at solidarity demo for Zanon workers.
Argentine workers have stuck two fingers up at the bosses and are
running their factory for themselves at the Zanon plant after the
owner closed it down claiming it wasn't making enough profit. But
since the occupation the cooperative has taken on 50% more workers
and production levels have increased threefold.

The occupied factory is a success story in a country where the
US-driven neoliberalist project has dramatically crashed and
burned, much like the rest of South America. And just like in
other South American countries the government is bowing to
external pressure from the IMF, the World Bank, and all the other
US-dominated institutions that have ravaged the continent to crush
all evidence that there is another way to run a factory, a
country, or a planet besides predatory corporate capitalism.

There are plenty of statistics that illustrate the failure of
neoliberalism in Argentina. During the 2001 economic crisis 20,000
Argentineans slid below the poverty line every day. $130 billion
left the country for Western banks. Unemployment skyrocketed. Five
presidents were ousted in two weeks. Even the multinational
Citibank lost some $2bn. But soon things started to get back to
normal, with mass arrests and protesters being shot dead. Yet
another 'Peronist' president took power in 2003, the same year
that Citibank saw its profits rise by a third.

During the crisis, Que se vayan todos! (Out with them all!) became
the common call of protesters. The Piquetero (flying picket)
movement of thousands of unemployed workers who use direct action
have fought pitched battles with the authorities. In Argentina's
second biggest city, Cordoba, civil servants set fire to the city
hall. And you know things are hotting up when middle class people
start smashing up banks!

Yet only a year and a half after the crisis nearly two thirds of
the electorate voted for politicians from traditional 'Peronist'
(right wing) parties. The winner, President Néstor Kirchner, once
expressed sympathy with the unemployed, touting anti IMF rhetroic.
Before Kirchner came to power five presidents had passed through
the revolving doors of the presidential office in just two weeks,
determined to stay in power he played it slow with his real
agenda. Now the gloves are off and he is clamping down on
anti-capitalist demonstrations and organisation, with the closure
of worker controlled factories.

Kirchner fans reckon he's done some great stuff, such as forcing
into retirement loads of generals and police chiefs from the
"dirty war" years of the late 70's and early 80's when people were
'disappeared' on a daily basis. More than 30,000 Argentineans were
murdered by the CIA-backed regime. To his credit Kirchner repealed
the amnesty granted by previous presidents to the generals
involved, and even told Congress to take fewer bribes! But his
self-proclaimed vision of a "normal capitalism" has failed to
tackle the most serious obstacles to sustainable, fair economic
development. Government policy is still all about foreign debt
payments, privatisations and corporate-friendly laws.

Piquetero and Choose...

One in five people in Argentina are unemployed and many felt that
they had had enough and could do a better job of running things
than the bosses. There has been a wave of worker takeovers.
Cleaning staff have been running four-star hotels, a supermarket
was taken over by its clerks and even pilots and cabin crew talked
of turning a regional airline into a cooperative! There are now
more than 15,000 workers occupying 200 workplaces. Occupied
businesses are usually run on a one worker, one vote basis and
many factories pay all their workers the same salary. The Zanon
workers' co-operative is one of those occupied businesses. Called
FaSinPat, short for Fabricas Sin Patrones, (Factories Without
Bosses), it has occupied a ceramics factory since October 2001.

And there are many reasons why the local community is so
supportive of the co-op. For the past twenty years the poverty
stricken community of Nueva Espaqa has been asking the government,
without success, to build them a health clinic. Taking on the
challenge, Zanon workers voted to build a community health centre
and finished the job in just three months.

The factories offer an alternative to corrupt bosses and the
politicians they have bought. Running scared of successful
community-supported workers co-ops; government agencies have been
ignoring the cooperative's attempts to become a legal entity.
Instead judges and politicians have been planning offensive
actions against the movement. Workers are being told to toe the
line. In an attempt to split the co-operative the government has
offered 250 jobs to 400 workers in a new factory making
prefabricated buildings. If they refuse they face violent
eviction, harassment and a long time on the dole with a marked
card. Zanon's ex-executives have even organised groups of several
dozen "barrabravas" (paid hooligans) from the football club
Cipolletti to hassle Zanon workers.

Threats against Zanon are part of a wider clamp down. In August
more than one hundred workers of the occupied factory Gatic (which
makes Adidas clothes), were evicted with tear gas, clubs and
rubber bullets. Kirchner has also refused to cancel the political
trials of 4,000 activists arrested during the previous regime. The
Minister of the Interior promises to enforce a court ruling from
April 2004 criminalizing piquetero street blockages.

But the measures have united the piquetero movement, and has led
to massive protests. Right now, Argentina's phone network is on
the verge of collapse following strikes by more than 20,000
workers who are demanding fairer wages. In Buenos Aires, the
action has intensified with workers storming and holding buildings
belonging to the country's phone companies.

The Supreme Court has just instructed Zanon's local authorities to
immediately carry out the local court's eviction order. Five
attempts to evict the factory have been resisted by the workers,
but the latest eviction order looks like it might be carried
through. With enough international support the Zanon workers
reckon they can resist another eviction attempt.

* Help them stop the evictions by signing the petition now!
www.petitiononline.com/zanon/petition.html

* Check out the excellent 'The Take' a film about the occupied
factory co-operatives: www.nfb.ca/thetake

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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK

For babysitting!

Two anarchists in France were arrested by anti terrorist police
for looking after the three year old child of two alleged members
of Basque separatist group ETA. SchNEWS reckons, just to be safe,
remember to ask exactly what your mates are doing before you agree
to baby-sit for them!

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BANGERS AND SchMASH UP

Fine food fundraiser for SchNEWS followed by SchNEWS DJs playing
music to get drunk to. Sun 12th - food from 1.30-4pm then music
till 10.30. (Cowley Club Members and guests only for the this
one - sorry).

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SchNEWS at Ten - The Movie

Brighton Premier of a film ten years in the making. From the
Courthouse to their recent massive party in London - and
everything in between. Thursday 16th 6pm. Both events at the
Cowley Club, 12 London Rd, Brighton. 01273 696104.
www.cowleyclub.org.uk

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NOT FAIR-FORD

The Court of Appeal ruled this week that police violated the Human
Rights Act when they illegally detained 120 protestors en route to
a demonstration at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, before they even
got out of their coaches. The coaches were searched and when
police found they were tooled up with two pairs of scissors and
some pamphlets they were driven back to London under police guard.
Police claimed the protestors were 'well armed'.

It turns out that the police had our best interests at heart,
though. They claim they were in fact protecting the protestors
right to life and 'had a member of the public penetrated the
defences and been killed or injured by one of the armed personnel
guarding the B52 aircraft...the public reaction and political
consequences would have been extremely damaging to the coalition
partners'. Yeah right.

However, the judges also ruled that although detention on the
coaches was unlawful, it was not unlawful for the police to turn
the passengers away from the demonstration. This means that any
group of people could be turned away from a demonstration without
evidence and based solely on the opinion of a senior police
officer. Amnesty International has described the ruling as having
a "chilling effect on the rights to freedom of assembly, peaceful
protest and expression". www.fairfordcoachaction.org.uk

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Shamewood Forest

On Monday 50 bailiffs and 100 police (including road-blocks around
the district) evicted anti-road protesters at Sherwood Forest,
Nottingham. This was a surprise move as the Under-Sheriff of
Nottingham told the protesters only last week that there would not
be an eviction while legal cases were still outstanding.
www.indymedia.org.uk

..and to prevent a similar occurrence in Birmingham, get down to
The Nursery Social Centre TODAY. They need people to help defend
the centre on Bournbrook Road, Selly Oak (opposite Uni. gates on
Bristol Road). www.stuffit.org/nursery 07910 53804

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D'OH! Chemicals

The BBC recently had to admit that an interview they broadcast
about the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster with a
'spokesman' from Dow Chemical Co. was, er, total bollocks.

Dow chemical 'spokesman', Jude Finisterra, accepted full
responsibility for the disaster on behalf of the company. Anyone
interested in the story would have known that the slimy toxic
bastards from Dow Chemical Co. have been denying any
responsibility and wriggling out of paying compensation to the
tens of thousands of victims for the last 20 years.

The BBC claimed they had been the victims of an "elaborate
deception", which seems about as subtle and elaborate to us as a
massive explosion of poisonous chemicals. Still, Dow weren't
laughing as millions were wiped off their stock market price.
www.theyesmen.org

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Inside SchNEWS

Why not write to a prisoner this Christmas? There are details of
loads of political prisoners on the Brighton ABC website. Remember
the 10th of December is the last day for posting stuff the US and
Eastern Europe.
www.brightonabc.org.uk

* Don't forget to send a Christmas card to James Borek LL6803, HMP
Blundeston, D-108, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR32 5BG. James was sent to
prison in January 2004 for four and a half years for injuring a
cop during the June 18th 1999 "Carnival against Capital" in
London's financial district.

* Bailiff firm Constant & Co have long been the company that
executes the most vicious evictions of Gypsy and Traveler sites -
demonstration next Mon (13), Noon, Bedford Station. Planning
meeting for further action and other traveler solidarity, this Sat
(11) 7pm @ London Action Resource Centre
www.travellersupport.org.uk

* New anti-authoritarian society at the University of London.
Meeting this Monday (13) at ULU bar 6pm
uluantiauthoritarians@yahoo.co.uk

* Anti-Capitalism reaches Uckfield! In the sleepy Sussex town of
Uckfield - glue was used to disable locks and cash machines as
part of Buy Nothing Day. Targets included Lloyds, Woolworths,
Tesco and NatWest. Somerfield said the damage cost them £1000. And
SchNEWS thought nothing ever happened in Uckfield.

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Positive SchNEWS

RampART is a squatted social centre in East London that has been
open for six months and is celebrating with a couple of parties
next weekend (17-18) The two day event includes an open day on the
Saturday afternoon, as well as alternative fashion shows,
workshops and music.

Protestors have been targeting Marks and Spencer's for ages
because of their support for the repressive Israeli state and for
flogging products made on stolen Palestinian land. Last Saturday,
10 people were arrested at the regular protest outside Marks and
Spencer's in central Manchester.

The Chief Constable of Manchester had imposed a ban on pickets of
the store over the Christmas and New Year period on the grounds
that there are more punters around who might be distracted from
the important business of shopping. He wanted the demo to be held
half a mile away, limited to 20 people, and only from 12 to 3 pm.

The cops imposed bail conditions on some of those nicked although
none of them were charged with any offence. Some can't come into
the City Centre on Saturdays till mid-January, while others are
forbidden from entering the City Centre at any time! No prezzies
for their mates, then.

The ongoing squeezing out of the right to protest needs to be
resisted. Come along to show your support.

* An interim injunction to limit demonstrations outside Newchurch
guinea pig farm was granted last week. Protesters can still
protest once a week on a Sunday from 12 till 3pm with no more than
25 people but without megaphones. Save Newchurch Guinea Pigs:
01902 564734 www.liberation-now.org

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Sick in the EDO

EDO/MBM is Brighton's friendly local arms dealer, located on the
Home Farm Industrial Estate, Moulsecoomb, Brighton. EDO, an
American multinational, makes bomb release mechanisms for F16s,
Hawk Hurricanes and Tornadoes, tank diagnostic systems and the
controversial Paveway IV precision guidance system. All their
charming 'products' have been used in the recent invasion of Iraq.
Indeed their managing director, David Jones, has openly stated
that his company is proud to support the invasion and ongoing
occupation of Iraq. The factory also sells to Lockheed Martin in
the USA who equips human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia,
Indonesia, Israel and Turkey. Not to mention the US military and
UK forces, who they have signed huge contracts with. EDO are proud
sponsors of war and oppression all over the place. They might
argue, as others have, that if they don't do it someone else will.
This logic has yet to save a heroin dealer from being convicted.

In May six activists erected metal fencing on the road to the
factory and chained themselves to it while a further five occupied
the roof. The factory was paralysed for the day as only a few of
their 250 workers made it past the blockade. They estimate this
cost them £20,000.

The six activists involved in the demo are charged with
Obstructing the Highway and are on trial 14th-17th December and
are asking for people from around the country to demonstrate
outside Brighton Magistrates Court and at EDO. Accommodation will
be provided in Brighton. Demonstration and support march organised
by Sussex Action for Peace on 16th December outside Brighton
Magistrates Court, Edward Street. Interested people should
telephone 07900 698550.

Other actions against EDO have included roof occupations,
paintbombs have been splattered on the walls, the delivery
entrance was blocked up with fast-drying cement, a steaming pile
of horse manure has been dumped in the front yard, and regular
noise demos on Home Farm Road outside the factory have attracted
up to 40 people.

* In an attempt to show how effective the protests have been
Special Branch visited a Brighton anti-war activist yesterday
morning in a dawn raid. He was arrested for harassing company
directors of EDO/MBM and his flat was searched.

For more details about the campaign see www.smashedo.bpec.org

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..and finally...

SchNEWS has a tip for those of you looking for on-line porn but
worried about your right on reputation... Fuck for Forest is a
Norwegian organization dedicated to having sex in public to save
the environment. They raise awareness of environmental issues and
raise money by selling eco-porn online...

The organization is run by a couple in Norway who were in court
recently after they stripped off their clothes and had sex on
stage during a rock concert by Kristopher Schau and his band The
Cumshots (we're not making this up, honest). Tommy Hol Ellingsen,
and his girlfriend Leona Johansson, said they did it to help save
the environment. Tommy 'accidentally' lost his trousers during
court proceedings in what he described as, "a short moment of love
between him and the Norwegian media". Police fined the couple
nearly $2,500 each, but they are refusing to pay and will appeal
the decision.

Oh yeah, Fuck for Forest are looking for volunteers! Their website
says: "Angry? Horny? You can be a model for fuck for forest.
Amateurs and professionals alike - anybody is welcome to contact
us. We are mainly looking for girls and couples. Get fucked for
forest! Don't be depressive. Take control." www.fuckforforest.com

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Disclaimer

SchNEWS warns all readers not to ask any awkward questions,
it-Zanon of your business!

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INFORMATION FOR ACTION - IF YOU LIKE IT PASS IT ON...

What's On? Check out out Party and Protest guide at
www.schnews.org.uk/pap/guide.htm - it's updated every week, has
sections on regular events, local events, protest camps and
more...

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HOW TO UN/SUBSCRIBE TO SCHNEWS-L

To unsubscribe, go to the website and follow the instructions
there, or send a message to webmaster@schnews.org.uk with subject
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